1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of leveling vehicles and more particularly to a device that is installed under the wheels of a recreational vehicle to level the vehicle when the vehicle is parked.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vehicle leveling devices, particularly devices that are used to level the wheels of recreational vehicles, are common in the prior art. Usually fabricated of plastic or some other type of sturdy synthetic or resilient material, leveling devices can be employed as a single unit or as two or more units that are combined by stacking to achieve a desired height. Two or more such leveling units may be connected in a variety of ways, including mating pins and pockets similar to the system used with the popular LEGO® building blocks. Examples of this kind of system are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,780 of Leo S. Volpe issued May 17, 1988 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,732 of Ronald Lyman issued Aug. 19, 1986. Other types of leveling devices in the prior art include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,862 issued Aug. 28, 1979 to Stephen A. Bennett; U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,501 issued Jun. 6, 1989 to William F. Baer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,910 issued Apr. 11, 1989 to Paul F. Johnston; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,179 issued Jan. 24, 1984 to Franklin W. Price. Though these devices have similar objectives, all are structurally distinct from the improved device of the present invention.
Some of the upstanding elements in the prior art devices, or posts or pins as they are commonly called, are solid in structure having no openings either along their sides or upon their top surfaces. Some pins contain openings, either simply for aesthetic purposes or to eliminate the suction effect that might otherwise make it difficult to separate connected units that employ, for example, the aforementioned pin and pocket technology.
In virtually all instances in the prior art, each leveling device unit has a height of about an inch or two, making it especially difficult in some situations for a vehicle wheel to be moved up and eventually onto the top surface of the unit or, in an even more challenging scenario, onto the top surface of two or more stacked units. The greater the height of the stacked leveling units, the more difficult this process becomes.
The improvement of the device of the present invention is a leveling unit that includes a partially beveled side with a sloped or ramp-like projection having an inclined plane that tapers downwardly from the top surface of the unit towards the ground surface. Thus, with a single leveling unit or two or more stacked units, it becomes much easier for the vehicle wheel to move up the ramp to the top surface of the unit, and then down the ramp to the ground surface. Openings formed in the ramp portion of the unit enable the top unit of two or more stacked units to lock together to form laterally offsetting ramps. With the ramps of stacked units positioned in a laterally offsetting relationship, a wheel can more easily ride up and down to reach or descend from the uppermost surface in the stack. No other leveling device in the prior art includes these structural capabilities.